Warning on overuse of swine flu drugs
While the global outbreak appears mild, there is no consistent, collective response to it as an international community.
Not long after Switzerland lifted its advisory against travel to Mexico and the US on Tuesday, the Japanese national women’s soccer team cancelled a tour to North America, where most swine flu cases have been reported.
In Mexico’s Baja California state, on the US border, 5,689 children were turned away from schools when classes resumed because they had symptoms like runny noses, headaches or sore throats.
Three more nations – Cuba, Thailand and Finland – reported their first confirmed swine flu cases, all in people who had travelled to Mexico.
A 24-year-old man from Hong Kong who was returning from the US was confirmed yesterday as the Chinese territory’s second case of swine flu, authorities said.
And China confirmed its second case of swine flu on the mainland, in a man who had recently returned from Canada.
There are now 33 countries reporting an estimated total of 5,916 confirmed swine flu cases, including 3,009 in 45 US states, 2,282 in Mexico and 358 in Canada.
The death toll is relatively low – 63, of which 58 were in Mexico, three in the US, one in Canada and one in Costa Rica.
But health experts worry that the virus might become more lethal in the coming months, saying it is important not to overuse antiviral drugs since supplies are limited.
The World Health Organisation said antiviral drugs should only be given to patients most at risk.
Its comments appeared aimed at European countries. They have been administering antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza whenever possible in an attempt to contain the virus before it spreads more widely.
Officials from EU and Latin American nations, including Mexico, were meeting in Prague yesterday to discuss ways of combating the threat.
A WHO medical expert, Dr Nikki Shindo, said the UN agency thinks antivirals should be targeted mainly at people already suffering from other diseases or complications, including pregnancy, that can lower a body’s defences against flu.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention also said pregnant women should take the drugs if they are diagnosed with swine flu – even though the effects on the foetus are not completely known.
Pregnant women are more likely to suffer pneumonia when they catch flu, and flu infections have raised the risk of premature birth in past flu epidemics. A pregnant Texas woman who had swine flu died last week, and at least 20 other pregnant women have swine flu, including some with severe complications.
CDC officials said while the swine flu may seem mild now, it may mutate into something more dangerous – perhaps by combining with the more deadly but less easily spread bird flu virus circulating in Asia and Africa.
Another concern is that it will combine with the northern winter’s seasonal H1N1 virus.
